The Context: Ducie Street

A context is an essential component in testing the synergies’ potential for creating more comfortable homes. The research and design up to this point informs the design in context. The ideas can mutate to suit the climate, orientation, and scale of the site and its context. The context impacts heavily on which aspects of the architectural design can have elements of discomfort as well as comfort. For example, the cold British winter is an uncomfortable force of nature, but the touch of an icy door knob and watching your breath condense like steam in the cold air makes us feel alive. The level of comfort is just a question of time. The context informs which of the contributing factors of comfort are most affected by time. In Liverpool one of these factors is the cold weather – a short term pleasure but a great source of discomfort over time.

Ducie Street in Liverpool has been selected, as it is a terraced street, a prevalent typology widespread throughout the UK, and it is currently available for redevelopment. Within this architectural testing ground, we have created a trilogy of new dwellings that disrupt preconceptions of living, enabling us to extract certain findings.